accidental observer

had a hankering for praline pecans &

so, as one with a hankering for praline

pecans will do, when the appropriate

funds are available & one has the time

to go praline pecan search,

off to the grocery he went.

 

the first store didn’t have exactly what

he wanted & so back in the car & the

search continued, but rather than pop

from store to store, not finding the perfect

can, like Goldilocks & the porridge,

he settled for a bag of some fancy

black pepper & cranberry pecan

concoction, which while in reality

were probably better for him, they just

didn’t hit the mark, like the pralines

which he’d envisioned in his head

(and eventually in his stomach), only

a half hour or so before the

black pepper purchase.

 

rewind to right before he went up to

the register to buy the nuts & you

find him walking down an aisle in

which at the end, only a few paces away,

there stood a little girl, a toddler, pushing

one of those teeny lil’ carts which

kids are able to push around beside their

parents.

 

now, her cart was pretty damn full &

the little girl had somehow got it

teetering, so now at this point she is

struggling to keep the cart from completely

falling over & the squealing scream/cry

that only a little girl can muster, starts to

emit from her mouth simultaneously

with a reddening of the face, which is the

pre-balling cry period that children

seem to have.

 

our praline-seeker, he sees the child screaming

& ponders the scenario, that if her ran to

help the child, the parent might not

appreciate a stranger in the midst of their

most precious, while on the other hand,

it’s perfectly possible that she will let the

cart fall over & cause her some kind of

pain---either way, the child is not the

responsibility of the praline-seeker,

so he simply watches the event unfold

as he continues down the aisle in her

direction at a casual walking pace.

 

within seconds, the father & his even

younger daughter (being dragged by her

arm round the corner of the other aisle)

come to help out the struggling child &

suddenly her screaming stops, with all

the pre-balling cry reddening

disappearing, as if nothing had happened---

the father looks up, smiling a stressed

out smile at the praline-seeker and

gets down to the level of his child,

brushing hair out of her face &

telling her it’s going to be alright.

 

as all three of them move on round the

corner to the next aisle, our praline-

seeker stops & decides on the black

pepper & cranberries.